As spring returns to the land, farming season urges action. From "cloud farming" on the black soil of Northeast China to precise management along the Yellow Sea coast, from intelligent rice seedling cultivation in southern paddy fields to the "iron army" of agricultural machinery on the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, digital and intelligent technologies alongside farming equipment are comprehensively penetrating all aspects of spring ploughing, laying a solid foundation for a bumper grain harvest. This not only reflects the implementation of national smart agriculture policies targeted for 2026 but also represents a vivid practice of new quality productive forces in agriculture at the grassroots level, outlining a solid path for China's agricultural modernization transformation.
Technology is making farming smarter for farmers. Smart agriculture is shifting spring farming away from reliance on experience and weather dependence towards a modern approach based on data and precise decision-making. The No. 1 central document for 2026 clearly stated the need to "develop new quality productive forces in agriculture tailored to local conditions and promote the integration of artificial intelligence with agricultural development." This directive is being actively implemented on the frontlines of spring farming in both northeastern and southern regions.
Despite the lingering spring chill, the village committee office in Shuguang Village, Tangwang Korean Ethnic Township, Tangyuan County, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, is bustling with activity. As the village Party secretary spoke, Chen Haihua, an expert from the Jiamusi National Agricultural High-tech Zone, began a "cloud farming" science lecture. On a large electronic screen, data on a "digital farmland map" flickered. Chen explained that the platform predicts an accumulated temperature of 2,800°C this year, 350°C higher than last year, with the data backed by sophisticated meteorological models capable of accurately predicting rainfall and drought conditions. Addressing villagers' questions about seed selection, he demonstrated an "intelligent seed selection" module which, after inputting disease resistance requirements and sowing time, immediately recommended suitable varieties and estimated yield per mu.
The reach of smart technology extends across the north-south divide, proving effective in the seedling cultivation stage. At the modern seedling base in Xiushan Town, Taojiang County, Yiyang City, Hunan Province, an unmanned silver-gray transport vehicle reliably stops at a designated marker at the greenhouse entrance. Its body lowers slightly, smoothly sliding out trays carrying hundreds of seedling plates for precise transfer to receiving racks inside. The introduction of such autonomous transport vehicles aims to fully connect the critical links of smart agriculture, building an intelligent closed-loop system from seed to granary. The manager of the agricultural company noted that one unmanned vehicle can match the transfer efficiency of over ten laborers, effectively solving labor shortage issues.
If smart technology serves as the "brain" of spring farming, then agricultural machinery is its "muscle and bones." The outline for the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly calls for "implementing high-quality development actions for agricultural equipment and promoting integrated efficiency gains from good fields, seeds, machinery, and methods." These policy requirements are translating into tangible production gains on the ground during the spring planting season.
In a 12,000-mu potato planting base in Liuwang Town, Qingdao West Coast New Area, integrated seeders equipped with BeiDou navigation systems shuttle across the fields. Operating based on pre-set programs and high-precision satellite systems, these machines follow predetermined routes to complete trenching, fertilizing, film laying, and seeding in one seamless operation. A local grower expressed that while manual planting used to exhaust workers after covering just two mu per day, the efficiency has now increased nearly twentyfold with the navigation-guided seeders. Currently, in Qingdao, 16,000 sets of intelligent agricultural machinery are deployed across fertile fields. Plant protection drones apply pesticides at low altitudes, integrated water-fertilizer systems deliver nutrients precisely, and smart farm equipment interconnects with field weather stations and pest monitoring devices, boosting production efficiency by over 15% compared to traditional methods.
As the rumble of machinery continues in Qingdao, the spring farming symphony has also begun across the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain. In Liyantou Village, Tandian Township, Huangchuan County, Henan Province, a machinery cooperative is busy with early seedling cultivation for ratoon rice and drone-based plant protection for wheat, with large-scale mechanized rice transplanting set to begin around April 5th. To address the challenges of rural labor migration and the difficulty of finding transplanting workers, the cooperative has pioneered a fully mechanized process for seedling cultivation and transplanting. It offers integrated services including "substitute seedling raising, transplanting, management, and harvesting," managing a total area of 10,000 mu. This model leverages scaled, intelligent machinery services to achieve accelerated speed for spring farming.
On this year's spring farming frontlines, smart agriculture has become a distinctive highlight in the fields. It not only resolves the pain points and difficulties of traditional spring farming but also drives the transformation of agriculture from labor-intensive to technology-intensive, providing robust scientific and technological support for ensuring national food security and promoting rural revitalization.